Gao Xingjian is a Chinese �migr� novelist, playwright, and critic who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature ?for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity.? He is also a noted translator, screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter. In 1998, Gao was granted French citizenship. Gao's drama is considered to be fundamentally absurdist in nature and avant-garde in his native China. His prose works tend to be less celebrated in China but are highly regarded elsewhere in Europe and the West. 

January 4th, 1940 in Ganxian District (Age 84)